Monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain. The method includes a step of receiving (110), from a data consumer, a request for information from or accessible via at least a part of a digital twin (10) for a textile item (272), the request including a digital identifier to identify the digital twin, wherein the digital twin includes or provides access to data associated with textile waste associated with the textile item. If it is determined, in a corresponding determination step (115), that the requested information or at least a part thereof is to be provided to the data consumer, a step of providing (125) the same to the data consumer or of providing the data consumer, via the digital twin, with access to the same follows. The presented method allows for a sustainable textile value chain.

Description

[0001] Monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain

[0002] FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The invention relates to a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain, to a corresponding data processing apparatus and a corresponding computer program, and to a use of any of the foregoing for recycling textile items. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] Due to the changing nature of fashion and the limited lifetime of textile products, large amounts of textile waste are generated in the textile industry. As of today, still only a small amount of textile waste is recycled. The amount of raw materials consumed by the textile industry is therefore still high. On the other hand, technical solutions for the recycling of textile waste to produce new textile products therefrom do exist. Therefore, the textile industry has a high potential of making a large contribution on the way towards a sustainable economy. However, value chains in the textile industry are long, fragmented, regional and include many different types of stakeholders globally. Achieving sustainability in the textile industry is therefore a complex problem.

[0005] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] It is an object of the invention to allow for a sustainable textile value chain.

[0007] In a first aspect, the invention relates to a computer-implemented method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain, the method including a) receiving, from a data consumer, a request for information from or accessible via at least a part of a digital twin for a textile item, the request including a digital identifier to identify the digital twin, wherein the digital twin includes or provides access to data associated with textile waste associated with the textile item, b) determining whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based at least in part on the digital identifier included in the request, and c), if it has been determined that the requested information or at least a part thereof is to be provided to the data consumer, providing the same (i.e., the requested information or the one or more parts thereof that have been determined to be provided) to the data consumer or providing the data consumer, via the digital twin, with access to the same (i.e., the requested information or the one or more parts thereof that have been determined to be provided).

[0008] In a textile value chain, the tracking and sorting of textile items such as yarn, fabrics, garments or corresponding waste can be of great interest, since it allows for transparency through the value chain. Transparency between participants can aid the collective improvement in circularity of textiles and textile waste to combat the depletion of natural resources and climate change. The sharing of data associated with the tracking and sorting of textile items is hindered, however, by a lack of common data standards and a lack of trusted data platforms. By use of digital twins for textile items, the necessary data can be easily shared among participants of a textile value chain. Moreover, by requiring participants interested in particular data associated with a given textile item to issue a corresponding request, wherein the request can be granted or not (optionally partially granted and partially not), the data can also be exchanged securely. Since the request only has to include a digital identifier to identify the respective digital twin, the secure data exchange can be organized based on a simple data standard enabling a broad exchange of data relating to the tracking and sorting of textile items and textile waste in a textile value chain.

[0009] In fact, the ability to easily and securely exchange data regarding the tracking and sorting of textile items can be regarded as an enabling factor for the tracking and sorting of textile items. The data enables participants in the value chain to sort textile items with economically reasonable effort or at least optimize the sorting such that a recycling and hence a circular value chain becomes technically feasible and economically reasonable. Via the digital twin of a garment, a value chain participant may be able to prove a degree of sustainability of the garment, for instance. The degree of sustainability of a garment may be measured in terms of a share of sustainable, i.e., recycled, fibers in the garment. The degree of sustainability of a garment may be of interest to end consumers and hence also to garment producers. But, more generally, the degree of sustainability of a textile item such as a yarn, a fabric or other pre-product, may also be relevant in relations between participants further upstream the value chain. Moreover, not only the degree of sustainability of a specific textile item may be of interest, but also a degree of sustainability of a value chain participant as a whole, i.e., for instance, of all textile items originating from the respective participant. For example, a yarn, fabric or garment producer may be enabled by the exchange of digital twins as proposed herein to prove how much of the textile material processed by the producer is recycled, i.e., how much of it has been and / or will be recycled.

[0010] The term “circularity” as used herein can particularly be understood as referring to a degree to which textile items in a textile value chain are being recycled. More specifically, this degree of recycling may refer to a degree to which textile items in the textile value chain are being recycled to textile items again, in particular in the same textile value chain. Since perfect circularity will generally be non-realistic, the term “circular textile value chain” is to be understood as including textile value chains in which not all textile items are being completely recycled, but in which it is the intention to recycle textile items, wherein this intention may be reflected in a generally circular structure of the value chain. A “circular textile value chain” is also not understood as being limited to a purely textile value chain, i.e., a case where all recycled material used to produced textiles stems from textiles and all textiles are recycled into textiles again. Instead, some of the recycled material used to produced textiles may stem from non-textile products, and some of the textiles may be recycled into non-textile products. This may particularly be reasonable for textile value chains in which synthetic textiles such as polyamide-based textiles are produced, since synthetic fibers are generally made of material such as polyamides that are also used in non-textile products. Hence, a circular textile value chain as envisaged herein could also be circular in the sense of a more advanced circular economy where waste is used for recycling at the next and smartest point. It will of course also be understood that, in the present context of recycling and circular value chains, the term “waste” does not refer to material that is no longer used, but could instead be regarded as a resource like raw material in its own right.

[0011] A “textile item” as understood herein can particularly be a textile product such as a garment (i.e., such as a piece of clothing), any physical entity used for the production of the textile product (e.g., the garment) or any waste resulting therefrom. In particular, textile items are understood herein as including garments, garment waste, raw materials used for the production of garments and other textile products, intermediate products such as granules generated from raw materials for producing garments or other textile products, textile fibers, textile filaments, yarns, fabrics as well as packaging of any of the foregoing and packaged versions of any of the foregoing. Hence, not only a packaged version of one or more textile items, but also the packaging itself shall be understood herein as a textile item, irrespective of whether the material of the packaging itself would ordinarily be understood as being or being made of a textile material. A possible packaging of (other) textile items can be, for instance, a bag, bale, roll-off container, drum, barrel, and the like. These types of packaging may, more generally, be understood as receptacles. Receptacles or receptacle-like structures form a type of packaging that allows for a convenient and organized collection of various types of (other) textile items.

[0012] A “digital twin” for, or of, a textile item shall be understood as a data structure associated with the respective textile item. For instance, the association between the digital twin and the textile item, which may also be regarded as a pairing, may be realized by a) a physical identifier physically associated with the textile item and b) a digital identifier corresponding to the physical identifier, wherein the digital identifier allows to identify the digital twin and hence serves as a digital identity of the digital twin and preferably also the textile item. For instance, the physical identifier may be attached physically to the textile item and encode the digital identifier in a physical, preferably machine-readable, manner. The digital twin preferably includes information about the textile item in the form of stored data. However, it is also possible that the digital twin just provides access to information about the textile item that is not included in the digital twin, i.e., the data structure corresponding to the digital twin, for instance, itself. The digital twin for a textile item may also partially include data about the textile item and partially provide access to data about the textile item that is not included in the digital twin. Access to data not included in a digital twin may be provided, for instance, based on access data included in the digital twin, wherein the access data may refer, for instance, data allowing to retrieve data from a (possibly decentral) database, such as, for instance, a digital address and / or a digital key. In an embodiment, the digital twin may be a digital product passport (DPP) and the digital identifier may be a Decentralized Identifier (DID), a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or a Virtual Credential. More generally, the digital identifier may uniquely identify the digital twin, in which case it may also be referred to as a unique digital identifier.

[0013] A “data consumer” can be understood herein as any participant in the value chain or corresponding digital instance requesting information on a given textile item. A digital instance corresponding to a participant in a textile value chain requesting information on a textile item may be, for instance, a data consuming service. The above steps of receiving the request, determining whether to provide the requested information and, if it has been determined to do so, providing the same or access thereto to the data consumer may be carried out by a further participant in the textile value chain or a digital instance corresponding to this further participant. A digital instance corresponding to this further participant may be a data providing service, for instance. Additionally or alternatively to a further participant of the textile value chain receiving the request and carrying out the determining and potentially the providing steps above, the receiving, determining and potentially providing steps can be carried out by a central or decentral computing system configured to coordinate the exchange of data associated with textile items using digital twins. Access to this computing system, which may also be regarded as a network, may be provided to participants of the textile value chain via respective endpoints.

[0014] It may be preferred that the textile item refers to a recycled garment and the textile waste associated with the textile item refers to textile waste that entered a recycling process from which the recycled garment arose. Hence, in an exemplary embodiment, a digital twin may be provided for a recycled garment, i.e., for instance, for a piece of clothing that consists of at least partially recycled material. The digital twin may in that case include information about the textile waste that entered the recycling process from which at least a part of the garment arose. This information may include, for instance, information indicative of a share of recycled material in the garment in general or, more particularly, a share of recycled material in the garment which was produced, i.e. recycled, from garments produced by the same producer as the producer of the garment for which the information is requested. In this way, the producer of the garment or a contract partner such as a buyer of the garment can be informed in a simple and secure way about a degree of sustainability of the garment and / or its producer. The digital twin may be generated, for instance, upon production of the garment based on digital twins of pre-products used in the production and / or particularly digital twins of textile waste that entered the respective recycling process. Upon generating the digital twin, a physical identifier corresponding to the digital identifier for the digital twin may be generated and attached to the garment and / or a packaging thereof. It may be particularly preferred that the information in the digital twin for the garment includes information about which waste units went when in a granulation process being part of the recycling of the waste. Such temporal information about waste units that entered certain recycling processes such as granulation leading to a given garment have been found to be particularly useful for participants in the textile value chain since, for instance, an origin of the waste can be referred therefrom.

[0015] It may also be preferred that the textile item refers to a unit of textile waste to be recycled and the data which the digital twin includes or provides access to is associated with a material contained in the unit of textile waste. Hence, the digital twin may be a digital twin of a unit of textile waste that is to be recycled, wherein the digital twin may then include information about an amount and / or a type of material contained in the unit of textile waste. The unit of textile waste may refer, for instance, to packaged garment waste, wherein the packaging may refer to a packaging as the garment waste arrives at a recycling site, or to a packaging of textile waste formed at the recycling site.

[0016] In a particular embodiment, for instance, a plurality of garments may be collected from a plurality of collection sites and transported from there on to a recycling site, wherein the collection sites may be operated by garment producers and the recycling site may be a granulation plant at which the collected garment waste is to be processed into several different types of granules forming a basis for a subsequent production of fabrics. The collected garment waste may arrive at the recycling site in an unsorted manner, i.e., not yet sorted by its origin such as by garment brand, production region and / or production plant. At the recycling site, then, information about each of the garment waste items may be requested via the respective digital twin for sorting purposes. For instance, information about the brand of each textile waste item may be requested from the recycling site for clustering waste items from a same brand into a same bag.

[0017] Furthermore, it may be preferred that the textile item refers to a unit of granules for textile production and the textile waste associated with the textile item refers to textile waste that entered a granulation process from which the unit of granules arose. Thus, the digital twin may be a digital twin for a unit of granules for textile production, in which case the digital twin may include information about textile waste from which the granules was produced. It has been found that this information may be determined, for instance, by a) recording, for each textile waste item entering the granulation process, when it does so, b) for granules resulting from the granulation process, also when they do so, and c) correlating these times with each other.

[0018] The textile item may also refer to a unit of textile material parts for textile production that are different from granules, wherein the textile waste associated with the textile item may then refer to textile waste that entered a partitioning process from which the unit of textile material parts arose that is different from granulation. Thus, more generally, the information about the textile item may be determined, for instance, by a) recording, for each textile waste item entering a partitioning process, when it does so, b) for textile material parts resulting from the partitioning process, also when they do so, and c) correlating these times with each other. A partitioning process may, additionally or alternatively to granulation, include a shredding of one or more textile waste items into shreds and / or fibers.

[0019] The term “granulation” may be used to refer to particular partitioning processes applicable in the recycling of synthetic textiles, or to parts thereof. For instance, a granulation may include a melting of synthetic textile waste material parts and a subsequent condensation of the molten material into separate parts. A partitioning of textiles may be understood as referring to any process of breaking down textiles into parts or constituents thereof, and possibly processing the parts or constituents further to form parts or constituents with predefined properties. The particular parts or constituents resulting from a granulation process may be referred to as granules. Partitioning may be carried out mechanically and / or chemically. In the context of recycling synthetic textiles such as textiles containing polyamide, a partitioning may be carried out by breaking down the textiles to a molecular level and subsequently forming granules having a predefined shape from the molecules. In other examples, it may be sufficient to partition the textiles into parts above the molecular level. Particularly in the context of non-synthetic textiles such as cotton textiles, the partitioning may refer to a shredding of the textiles into shreds or fibers. Irrespective of whether the partitioned textiles are synthetic or non-synthetic, the resulting parts (i.e. , the granules, shreds or fibers, for instance) may be used as a basis for forming a yarn in a subsequent recycling step.

[0020] Typically, the method will include a step of authenticating the request, wherein it is determined whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based further at least in part on a result of the authentication. Thus, for instance, the step of determining whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based at least in part on the digital identifier included in the request may include an authentication. An “authentication” is understood herein as a check for at least an authenticity, and optionally also for an authorization. As far as not being understood as being part of an authentication, additionally or alternatively to the authentication of the request, an authorization check of the request may be carried out, wherein it may then be determined whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based further at least in part on a result of the authorization check. Hence, depending on the requesting party, the provided information may be limited partially or completely. The authenticity and / or authorization of the requesting party to receive or be granted access to any given part of the information included in or accessible via a digital twin may be verified by a) the data providing party and / or b) an authentication and / or authorization provider, which may form a further digital instance in the data exchange infrastructure considered herein.

[0021] The digital twin may include or provide access to data associated with a time at which the textile waste entered a granulation process. Thus, irrespective of the type of textile item, the data associated with the textile waste associated with the textile item which the digital twin includes or provides access to may be data associated with a time at which the textile waste entered a granulation process. As mentioned above, such temporal information about when textile waste associated with a given textile item entered a granulation process has been found to be particularly useful by participants in the textile value chain. This is because the time at which a given textile waste item enters granulation has been observed to be correlated with an origin of the textile item. The origin of a textile waste item, in turn, has been identified as an indicator, or at least as being useable as such, for recycling properties.

[0022] In fact, more generally, the digital twin may include or provide access to data associated with a time at which the textile waste arrived at a recycling site. The recycling site can be a granulation site or another site at which a recycling process is carried out. The data associated with the time at which the textile waste arrived at the recycling site may also be referred to as “arrival data”. For instance, such arrival data may be included in the digital twin in terms of an expected delivery time provided by a textile waste collector and / or a logistics provider, wherein this expected delivery time may even be continuously updated during a transport of the textile waste item to the recycling site. However, an expected delivery time may also be determined based on past deliveries of textile waste from one or more origins to a recycling site, such as by assuming regular delivery intervals associated with each of the origins.

[0023] An origin of textile waste may refer to a corporate origin, a geographical or regional origin and / or a production plant involved in the production of a textile end-product such as a garment from which the textile waste stems. It has been realized that the origin of textile waste can serve as an indicator for recycling properties of the waste since a physical and / or chemical constitution of the waste can correlate with the origin.

[0024] Additionally or alternatively to other data such as the temporal data indicated above, the digital twin may include or provide access to data associated with an origin of the textile waste, the origin referring to at least one of: a corporate origin, a geographical or regional origin, a production plant involved in the production of a garment from which the textile waste stems. Hence, while temporal data as indicated above, which is correlated with origin-indicating data, may be regarded as being associated with the origin, also other data associated with, particularly indicating, the origin of the waste might be included in the digital twin. For instance, the origin may be directly or even explicitly included in the digital twin. As mentioned above, information about the origin of the textile waste associated with a given textile item has been found to be particularly useful by participants of the textile value chain. While temporal information about when a given unit of textile waste enters a granulation process might be added to a digital twin of the unit of textile waste upon arrival at a recycling site or before, more direct information about an origin of the unit of textile waste would typically already be contained in the digital twin upon arrival at the recycling site. Both types of information may then be added to a digital twin provided for a respective unit of granules or another recycling process result, which is generated from the textile waste, based on the digital twin of the textile waste itself.

[0025] Entry time data of textile waste, i.e., data indicative of when the textile waste entered a recycling process, may also be used as a means to link digital twins of the textile waste to one or more digital twins of the digital waste as it leaves the recycling process. This is because recycling processes such as granulation are often organized in one or more process or production lines in which predefined processing steps are taken within a predefined or measurable time window. In other words, for any given item resulting from such a recycling process, a time frame can be determined in which any material being processed into the given item has entered the recycling process. In turn, if entry time data is known for textile waste entering such a recycling process, it can be inferred therefrom into which one or more recycled items resulting from the process it has been converted. Thus, a link between textile waste items and recycled items and hence also between the respective associated digital twins can be established.

[0026] Furthermore, the digital twin may additionally or alternatively include or provide access to data indicative ofwhether the textile waste is post-industrial waste or post-consumer waste. Also this can be relevant for adapting recycling processes accordingly, one possible reason for this being that post-consumer textile waste items such as garments will typically still at least approximately have the shape and dimensions in which they were sold to the consumer, whereas post-industrial textile waste may take a variety of shapes, since it may have been subject to various processing steps. Also a chemical constitution or variance thereof, an availability of information and / or the acquisition thereof may differ between postindustrial and post-consumer waste. Besides, different participants of the value chain may be interested in different types of waste. For instance, a producer of consumer textiles may be interested in a share of post-consumer textile waste in a given textile item, whereas a producer of industrial textiles may be interested in a share of post-industrial textile waste in a given textile item.

[0027] Preferentially, the digital identifier is associated with a physical identifier, the physical identifier being physically associated with at least one of a) the textile item, b) the textile waste associated with the textile item and c) a packaging of any of the two. The physical identifier may be a QR code or a barcode, for instance, and may be attached to the respective textile item or its packaging. The physical identifier may, as mentioned above, physically encode the digital identifier identifying the respective digital twin, preferably in a machine-readable form that can, for instance, be read in using known scanning or imaging devices.

[0028] In an example, textile waste may arrive at a granulation site in a packaging in the form of a box, a bag etc., wherein a physical identifier in the form of a QR code may be attached to the packaging and read by an appropriate scanner to register the arrival of the waste. By scanning the QR code, the corresponding digital identifier of the digital twin of the packaged waste can be used to identify the digital twin and request access to it. If the request is granted, additional information can be added to the digital twin while or after processing the waste at the granulation site. Additionally or alternatively, data included in or accessible via the digital twins of the textile waste may be used in the granulation process and / or for addition to digital twins being generated for packages of granules resulting from the granulation process.

[0029] The data associated with the textile waste may be provided at a collection point. The data may be provided by requesting it from a producer of the textile waste and / or it can be acquired upon collection, i.e. pick-up, of the waste by a textile waste collector. Textile waste may be collected by a textile waste collector from a textiles producer and / or from a sorting facility for textile waste, wherein the collector may then provide the waste in the form of textile waste units to a recycling pre-processor, such as to a granulation site where textile waste is converted into granules. The collector, who may also sort the collected waste, may or may not be identical to the pre-processor.

[0030] Additionally or alternatively to the data mentioned above, the digital twin may include or provide access to data associated with an amount of a predefined textile material in the textile item, wherein the predefined textile material can be, for instance, cotton or at least one predetermined type of polyamide. For instance, depending on the amount of polyamide in textile waste to be processed into granules for producing new textiles, different types of granules may need to be generated. Hence, based on the information about an amount of a predetermined type of polyamide in units of textile waste arriving at a granulation site, the textile waste may be sorted and processed into different types of granules. Such a sorting has been found to be particularly useful to be carried out based on a content of polyamide 6 in the textile waste, since the suitability of different types of granules varies particularly with the polyamide 6 content in the textile waste. Similarly, knowing whether a unit of textile waste arriving at a recycling site includes cotton, and if so how much, can be used as a basis for sorting the unit of textile waste into one or more of a plurality of recycling streams, which may include separate recycling streams for cotton-only textile waste, textile waste containing no cotton and textile waste containing both cotton and other textile materials such as polyamide.

[0031] A recycling of polyamide (PA) such as, for instance, polyamide 6 (PA 6, PA6 or nylon), i.e., a generating of recycled polyamide such as polyamide 6, may be based on granules generated from molten textile waste as indicated above. Granules may be defined as a condensed form of rich textile material, particularly synthetic textile material such as, e.g., polyamide, in relatively small shapes having a maximum diameter of, for instance, in the centimeter range (e.g., between 1 and 10 cm). “Granulation” can, instead of “granules”, also lead to pellets or tablets or any such form. The process of generating the granules from the textile waste and the process of generating polyamides like polyamide 6 from the granules may be carried out at different processing sites, i.e., in different plants.

[0032] An operator of the plant converting the granules into PA 6 may look for textile waste with an as high as possible PA 6 content as this can influence the efficiency of the plant. Everything which is not PA 6 may be waste in the process of converting the granules into PA 6, and if there is too much non-PA 6 in the granules, this may even have a negative impact on the process.

[0033] A recycling process for recycling PA 6, i.e., for generating recycled PA 6, may correspond to its manufacturing process in a second process part, wherein it may additionally include a first process part preceding the second process part. In this first process part, the above indicated granules generated from the molten textile waste may be brought into a form with which a manufacturing process of PA 6 starts, i.e., for instance, starts usually.

[0034] The manufacturing process of PA 6 may involve the polymerization of caprolactam, the monomer used for PA 6 production. After polymerization, the molten PA 6 may be shaped through extrusion or injection molding. It may then be cooled and solidified using methods like air or water cooling. Post-processing steps may include cutting, machining, or surface treatments. The process can vary among manufacturers, but the primary steps typically involve polymerization, shaping, cooling, and post-processing.

[0035] The final form of the PA 6 resulting from a manufacturing process as indicated above and hence also a recycling of PA 6-containing textile items may correspond to fibers, films, sheets, rods, tubes or 3D printing filaments, for instance. A corresponding production or recycling line may include, for instance, an extruder configured to extrude PA 6 in the form of fibers, films, sheets, rods, tubes or 3D printing filaments.

[0036] Where the manufacturing process of PA 6 involves the polymerization of the monomer caprolactam, the first process part in the recycling of PA 6 may include an extraction of caprolactam from the granules. This may necessitate a separation of the PA 6 part in the granules, and a depolymerization, particularly a monomerization thereof.

[0037] Generally, particularly a preprocessing of PA 6-containing textile waste and / or granules in order to bring it into a form suitable for known PA 6 manufacturing processes may need to be adapted depending on a PA 6 content in the waste and / or granules. The PA 6 content may specifically refer to an amount of PA 6 as compared to an amount of one or more other constituents in the waste, particularly other polyamides such as polyamide 6.6.

[0038] The information about the amount of the at least one predetermined type of polyamide in a given item of textile waste, for instance, may preferably be acquired already upon collecting the item, such as from a textile waste collection site, wherein the data may then be loaded to the digital twin of the item such that this data is accessible and no longer has to be acquired at the granulation site. One possible device that can be used to identify an amount of polyamide 6 in a given textile item, particularly in distinction to an amount of polyamide 6.6 in the textile item, would be a semi-automatic handheld device or a fully automatic device using a near-infrared system for acquiring near-infrared spectra from the textile item. It has been found that polyamide 6 contents of textile items can be determined based on peaks in near-infrared spectra of the textile items.

[0039] In fact, verifying an amount of a predetermined type of polyamide such as polyamide 6 in textile waste upon collection allows producers of textile items with, for instance, particularly high amounts of the respective type of polyamide to check whether the collected textile waste is waste originating from their own production. Hence, such producers are enabled to establish a producer-specific, closed recycling system. This can also help in maintaining the particularly high amount of polyamide in the produced textile items, since less or no waste with lower amounts of the respective type of polyamide enters the recycling circle.

[0040] The data associated with an amount of at least one predetermined type of polyamide in a textile item, which may be included in a digital twin for the textile item, may be based on an identification of at least one peak in a near-infrared spectrum of the textile item. A nearinfrared spectrum of a textile item can be acquired using known near-infrared spectrometer devices. The identification of the spectrum may be carried out manually, in which case a result thereof may be provided as input to the computer-implemented method referred to herein, or may be carried out as part of the computer-implemented method presented herein. Data associated with an amount of other predefined textile materials in a textile item may be acquired and processed similarly. For instance, optical spectra of a textile item, particularly also in the infrared range, may also be used as a basis for determining an amount of cotton in the textile item.

[0041] In an aspect of a particular embodiment, also a method for adding polyamide content data to a digital twin for a textile item is presented, the method comprising a) providing the textile item, b) acquiring at least one spectrum of the textile item using at least one near-infrared spectrometer device, c) identifying at least one peak from the at least one spectrum, d) determining an amount of at least one predetermined polyamide in the textile item based on the at least one peak determined identified in the at least one spectrum, and e) adding the determined amount of the at least one predetermined polyamide in the textile item to the digital twin for the textile item.

[0042] In a further aspect, an embodiment therefore also relates to a method of using a digital twin for a textile item, to which polyamide content data has been added, in the method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain as defined above.

[0043] It may be particularly preferred that the at least one predetermined type of polyamide refers to at least one of polyamide 6 and polyamide 6.6. For these types of polyamides, it has particularly been found that the near-infrared spectral region carries accurate information about an amount of the respective polyamide in a respective textile item. The information may be retrieved from a respective spectrum or spectral region in terms of a position of one or more spectral peaks.

[0044] In another aspect, the invention relates to a data processing system comprising data processing means for carrying out any of the above methods.

[0045] A further aspect of the invention relates to a computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer or in a network of computers or computing nodes, cause the computer or network to carry out any of the above methods.

[0046] Furthermore, an aspect of the invention relates to a use of any of the above methods, the above data processing system and / or the above computer program for recycling textile items such as, in particular, garments. It shall be understood that the above methods, the data processing system and the computer program have similar and / or identical preferred embodiments, in particular as defined in the dependent claims.

[0047] It shall be understood that a preferred embodiment of the present invention can also be any combination of the dependent claims or above embodiments with the respective independent claim.

[0048] These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

[0049] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0050] In the drawings:

[0051] Fig. 1 shows schematically and exemplarily a framework for exchanging data associated with textile items using digital twins,

[0052] Fig. 2 shows schematically and exemplarily a transport of a textile item and a corresponding exchange of data between two parties,

[0053] Fig. 3 shows schematically and exemplarily a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain,

[0054] Fig. 4 shows schematically and exemplarily the method of Fig. 3 from a different perspective,

[0055] Fig. 5 shows schematically and exemplarily a method for using data from a digital twin of a textile item,

[0056] Fig. 6 shows schematically and exemplarily an apparatus for carrying out a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain and / or for a method of using data from a digital twin of a textile item,

[0057] Fig. 7 shows schematically and exemplarily a data model for a digital twin of a recycled textile item, Fig. 8 shows schematically and exemplarily a data model for a digital twin of textile waste material,

[0058] Fig. 9 shows schematically and exemplarily an embodiment of relating digital twins of different textile items in a same textile value chain among each other, and

[0059] Fig. 10 shows schematically and exemplarily the digital twins that have been related to each other as indicated in Fig. 9.

[0060] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0061] Fig. 1 shows schematically and exemplarily a framework for exchanging data associated with textile items using digital twins. Via this framework, a textile value chain can leverage digital twins to track, monitor and improve circularity. The framework is illustrated with a focus on how a particular material, in this case polyamide 6 (PA 6), passes through a circular value chain along a circular material loop 100. The circular material loop 100 is illustrated in terms of participants 101.1-101.6 and a loop material flow 104 from a respective participant to the next.

[0062] A PA 6 producer can be regarded as a first participant 101 .1 of the material loop 100. The PA 6 producer produces PA 6 from recycled material and in this case also from raw material, wherein the raw material is received via a raw material flow 106. The produced PA 6 is provided to a PA 6 user, who can be regarded as a second participant 101.2 of the material loop 100. The PA 6 user 101.2 uses the PA 6 received from the PA 6 producer 101 .1 to produce a PA 6-containing pre-product, such as a yarn or fabric, and provides this to a PA 6-containing product producer, who can be regarded as a third participant 101 .3 of the circular material loop 100. This third participant 101 .3 produces, for instance, a garment from the received fabric (generally a product from the received pre-product) and provides this to a PA 6-containing product user being regarded in this case as a fourth participant 101 .4 in the circular material loop 100. This fourth participant 101 .4 might be, for instance, an end consumer of the garment produced from the PA 6-containing yarn or fabric. While the traditional part of the value chain terminates at the product user 101 .4, the reverse part of the value chain that renders the value chain circular originates therefrom via a stream of waste to be sorted. It will be understood that there will typically be a plurality of product users, such that the waste stream is a stream of waste to which a plurality of participants of the fourth kind 101.4 contribute. The waste stream leads to a plastic waste collector and / or sorter, who may be regarded as a fifth participant 101.5 of the circular material loop 100. The plastic waste collector and / or sorter collects the waste from the one or more product users 101 .4 and / or sorts the same according to, for instance, a PA 6 content in the waste. The fraction of the waste that is determined by the plastic waste collector and / or sorter 101.5 to be recycled is forwarded to a recycling system operator, who may be regarded as a sixth participant 101.6 in the circular material loop 100. This sixth participant runs a recycling process for recycling the received waste fraction to be recycled and provides the recycled waste to the producer 101.1. In the illustrated case, the recycled waste may particularly be recycled PA 6 in the form of a granule.

[0063] The participants 101.1-6 exchange data via a network of nodes 103.1-6, wherein each participant is associated with a respective node. Thus, in Fig. 1 , node 103.1 is associated with participant 101 .1 , node 103.2 is associated with participant 101.2, node 103.3 is associated with participant 101.3, etc. The data flow 105 between the nodes is indicated by dashed arrows. The nodes 103.1-6 and the data flows 105, or data links, between them form a decentral network 102 in this case. Each node can communicate with each of the other nodes. Since the network is a decentral (or decentralized) network 102, the nodes 103.1-6 can also be referred to as decentral network nodes 103.1-6.

[0064] In a decentralized or decentral network 102, the decentral network nodes 103.1-6, in contrast to a centralized network, do not exclusively rely on a central network node. In other words, no single entity is the sole authority of the network. The decentral network 102 may include decentral and central network nodes. The decentral network 102 may include central network nodes that may control and / or monitor the decentral network nodes 103.1-6. For example, central network node(s) may provide authentication information, which allows at least two decentral network nodes 103.1-6 to establish a peer-to-peer communication channel between respective decentral network nodes 103.1-6.

[0065] The network nodes 103.1-6 may be computing nodes. The computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. Computing nodes are now increasingly taking a wide variety of forms. Computing nodes may, for example, be handheld devices, monitoring systems, control systems, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes and / or data centers. The memory may take any form and depends on the nature and form of the computing node. The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be connected via a wired and / or wireless connection such as one of Ethernet, USB, LAN, WLAN and the like. Wireless communication may use, for example, WLAN, Wi-Fi, cellular, and / or Bluetooth. The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be configured to perform peer-to-peer data transactions, illustrated by the arrows 105 indicating data flow.

[0066] The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be configured as data consuming and / or providing network nodes. The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be configured to provide data to other network node(s) of the decentral network 102 and / or to consume data from other nodes of the decentral network 102. For instance, the decentral network node 103.1 ,3 associated with the PA6 producer 101 .1 orthe PA6 containing product producer 101 .3 may be configured to provide product data associated with properties of the respective product to downstream participants such as the waste collector and / or sorter 101 .5 or the recycling system operator 101 .6. Furthermore, for instance, the decentral network node 103.5,6 associated with the waste collector and / or sorter 101 .5 or the recycling system operator 101.6 may be configured to access data from the network node 103.1-5 associated with upstream participants such as the PA6 producer 101 .1 orthe PA6 containing product producer 101 .3.

[0067] The decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 may comprise computer-executable instructions configured to provide, consume and / or process data, such as chemical product data associated with the respective textile item produced or processed within the circular loop 100. The network node(s) may run a data providing service configured to provide data to another decentral network node 103.1-6 of the decentral network 102. The decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 configured to provide data may be associated with a data owner or a data generating node associated with a textile item produced or processed within the circular loop 100. The decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 may be connected to one or more dedicated data storage(s) storing the data associated with the textile item produced or processed in the circular loop 100. The dedicated data storage(s) may be under control of the data owner or data generating node associated with the textile item produced or processed in the circular loop 100. The data owner may be the respective participant 101.1 -6 of the circular loop 100, the data generating node 103.1-6 is associated with. The data generating node 103.1-6 may have access to the dedicated data storage(s). Access to data associated with a textile item produced or processed within the circular loop 100 may hence be under control ofthe data ownerthe respective decentral network node 103.1-6 is associated with. This allows to retain full control over data associated with textile items produced or processed within the circular loop 100 by the data owner. At the same time this enables sharing of data associated with textile items produced or processed within the circular loop 100 under controlled conditions, for example by using appropriate protocols including authorization and authentication mechanisms or schemes to establish peer-to-peer communication. The decentral network node 103.1-6 configured to consume data may comprise computerexecutable instructions for accessing and / or processing data within the decentral network 102, such as data associated with a textile item produced or processed within the circular loop 100 and provided by a decentral data providing network node 103.1-6. The decentral data consuming network node 103.1-6 may be controlled or owned by or associated with any upstream or downstream participant of the circular loop 100. For instance, the decentral data consuming network node 103.4 may be associated with PA 6-containing product user 101 .4 to allow access to data (such as, for instance, a PA 6 content) associated with the supplied PA 6-containing product of the PA 6-containing product producer 101.3 through the decentral data providing network node 103.3 associated with the PA 6-contain- ing product producer 101.3.

[0068] The decentral network 102 may include further decentral network nodes 103.1-6. The further decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may not be associated with further participants of the circular loop 100. The further nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes (not shown in Fig. 1). The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 103.1-6, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 103.1-6 prior to performing a data exchange. The decentral network participant node(s) 103.1-6 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with an identity manager including e.g. a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 may be associated or connected to a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network node(s) 103.1-6. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with the data consumer are used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown).

[0069] The material or product, or generally the respective textile item, produced by participant(s) 101 .1-6 ofthe circular loop 100 may be associated with material or product data associated with properties of the respective textile item processed or produced by participant(s) 101 .1- 6 of the circular loop 100. The material or product data may be provided for access by the decentral data providing network node 103.1-6 associated with the respective processor or producer of the textile item. Access to the material or product data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node 103.1-6. The material or product data may be accessed by decentral data consuming network node(s) 103.1-6 associated with further participants 101.1-6 of the material loop 100, such as any downstream participant 101.1- 6.

[0070] The data flow 105 between decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 104, 106 between the participants 101.1-6 of the material loop 100. For instance, the data flow 105 may be directly associated with the material flow 104, if data associated with a lot or batch of PA 6 provided from the PA 6 producer 101.1 to the PA 6 user 101.2 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 103.1-6 associated with said PA 6 user 101.2. For instance, the data flow 105 may be indirectly associated with the material flow 104, 106, if data associated with a lot or batch of PA 6 produced by PA 6 producer 101.1 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 103.1-6 associated with the recycling system operator 101.6.

[0071] Data transactions between decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with the material or product data, i.e., the textile item data, to be accessed. The decentral identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the textile item. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the textile item. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the textile item within the decentral network 102. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifiers), such as decentral identifier(s) of textile item(s) used to produce a respective end product like a garment. This may allow to track the textile item(s) used to produce a textile item, such as a garment. The decentral identifier may be included in a material or product passport associated with the respective textile item.

[0072] It should be understood that, while Fig. 1 illustrates a network structure with respect to a material flow of PA6, the same or a similar network structure could be applied to track the flow of any other textile material, such as polyester or cotton.

[0073] In the case of polyester, the participants 101.1-101.6 could carry out the same or similar steps as described above for the case of PA6. In fact, these steps might be generalized to many more synthetic textile materials, particularly polymers. Taking now polyester as example, the product producer 101.1 may receive cleaned and sorted polyester waste, melt this down, extrude it into plastic filaments and spin the filaments into yarn, which can be used to produce new polyester fabrics. The product user 101 .2 may use the recycled pol- yester yarn to produce new polyester textiles. This can involve various manufacturing processes, such as weaving, knitting or nonwoven techniques. The further product producer 101.3, who could also be referred to as end-product producer while the product producer 101.1 could be referred to as pre-product producer, may then use the recycled polyester textiles to create a wide range of products, including clothing, accessories, upholstery and more. These products may be used by the end-users 101 .4 over a limited lifetime until they are collected for recycling by the collector and / or sorter 101 .5, who may, in a first recycling step, sort and separate different types of textiles, including polyester, from a textile waste stream. The sorting can have a high influence on the circularity of the value chain as different recycling techniques may be required for different materials. The sorting can be based on infrared technology, which can improve the sorting efficiency. The sorting may also partially or completely be carried out by the recycling system operator 101.6. In any case, textile items that have, in the sorting, been determined as containing polyester may be used by the recycling system operator 101.6 to generate therefrom the cleaned and sorted polyester waste needed by the yarn producer 101.1. For doing so, a chemical recycling process may be applied, particularly in the case of textile-to-textile polyester recycling. By a chemical recycling process, textile waste can be broken down to a molecular level. A chemical recycling process offers multiple points of re-entry into the value chain, which may be a fashion supply chain. Moreover, chemical recycling allows for a more versatile range of products compared to mechanical recycling. After the chemical recycling process, the resulting polyester waste can be cleaned and sorted to remove impurities and prepared for further processing by, for instance, the yarn producer 101.1.

[0074] It should be noted that textile-to-textile recycling of synthetic textile materials such as polyester is still in the early stages of development in the fashion industry. Currently, most recycled polyester on the fashion market is made from non-textile, particularly non-gar- ment, sources of polyester, such as PET bottles. It is desirable to scale up textile-two-textile recycling and thereby increase the circularity of polyester textiles.

[0075] In the case of cotton, the yarn producer 101.1 may receive recycled cotton fibers, which may result from a mechanical or chemical recycling carried out by the recycling system operator 101.6. The recycled cotton fibers may be blended with other materials such as virgin or organic cotton, or polyester, to improve durability and enhance the quality of the recycled cotton. The yarn may thus be produced based on recycled cotton fibers or blended fibers. Using the yarn, value chain participant 101.2 may produce new cotton textiles (including hybrid textiles containing a cotton component and further components) through processes like weaving or knitting, which can involve various manufacturing techniques to create fabrics suitable for different applications. Based on these newly produced textiles, the end-product producer 101.3 may create a wide range of textile products, including clothing, home textiles and building materials. These end-products may again be used by the end-users 101. 4 and, at the end of their lifetime, be collected by the collector and / or sorter 101.5. The collecting may refer to collecting cotton textiles, including pre-consumer waste from clothing production and post-consumer waste from discarded clothing. This can be done through various initiatives such as Internet-based recycling, brand-led recycling programs or government-led recycling policies. The collected cotton textiles may then be manually sorted based on their composition, color and quality. This step can ensure that only cotton materials are used in the subsequent recycling process and the different types of cotton can be processed separately. The sorted cotton textiles can undergo a quality assessment to determine their suitability for recycling. Various indexes, such as fiber quality index (FQI) and spin inconsistency index (SCI) may be used to assess the quality of the cotton fibers. Those textiles passing the quality assessment may be used by the recycling system operator 101.6 to produce recycled cotton fibers by mechanical or chemical recycling. In the mechanical recycling process, the cotton textiles are preferably shredded into small pieces or fibers using machines like a Garnett machine. These fibers can then be spun back into yarn without the use of chemicals. However, the mechanical process can result in relatively short fiber length, which might not be suitable as a basis for all recycled cotton textiles. Chemical cotton recycling is another method that can be used to break down cotton textiles into reusable fibers. This can involve processes such as the Lyocell process, where cotton is dissolved in N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO) and spun into pure cellulosic fibers. However, chemical cotton recycling still face some technical challenges, such that mechanical cotton recycling may still be preferred. While also in the recycling of synthetic textiles the recycling system operator 101.6 and the yarn producer 101.5 may in principle refer to a same value chain participant, this may particularly be the case for cotton recycling.

[0076] Cotton recycling helps reduce the environmental impact of cotton production by minimizing the use of water, land, chemicals and energy associated with cultivating virgin cotton. Challenges in cotton recycling include the presence of non-cotton materials and textiles, technical difficulties in sorting and separating cotton fibers and the need for clear policies and regulations to promote and support cotton recycling initiatives. It is desirable to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of cotton recycling processes.

[0077] Fig. 2 shows schematically and exemplarily a transport of a textile item and a corresponding exchange of data between two parties. The parties could, in principle, be any of the participants 101 .1-101 .6 from Fig. 1 . In the case of Fig. 2, one of the parties takes the role of a data providing party, wherein a network node running a data providing service 2208 is associated with the data providing party. The other of the parties in Fig. 2 is a data consuming party, and a network node running a data consuming service 2210 is associated with the data providing party. The data providing service 2208 and the data consuming service 2210 communicate with each other via data links 2212, 2216, which are illustrated in Fig. 2 as having respective data flow directions, but which could just as well be combined into a joint, bidirectional data communication link as indicated by the dashed arrows between the nodes 103.1-103.6 in Fig. 1.

[0078] The data providing party may be a supplier supplying a textile item 272 to the data consuming party. The data providing party may therefore be a producer or processor of the textile item 272, and the data consuming party may be a user of the textile item 272, wherein possible uses include a further processing of the textile item 272, a producing of a further textile item based on the textile item 272 or an end use.

[0079] The data owner in this example may be the data providing party (which may be the textile item producer), or the data consuming party (which may be the textile item customer / user or, if the textile item is not yet the end product, the end product producer). The data owner may comprise any entity generating data. The data generating node may be coupled to the data owner or the entity owning or producing physical products from or for which data is generated. The data may be generated by a third-party entity on behalf of the entity owning physical products from or for which data is generated.

[0080] The data consuming service 2210 may comprise computer-executable instructions for accessing and / or processing data associated with the data owner. The data providing service 2208 may comprise computer-executable instructions for providing and / or processing data associated with the data owner for accessing and / or processing by the data consuming service 2210.

[0081] Assuming a packaged textile item 272 comprising a physical identifier in the form of a barcode is transported from the data providing party to the data consuming party, the data consuming party may scan the barcode in a step 2206 upon arrival of the textile item 272, wherein the scanned information, particularly the digital identifier corresponding to the physical identifier, may be communicated wirelessly, such as by a wireless scanning device used for the scanning, to a database 2207 managed by the data consuming party. In order to issue a request to the data providing party for receiving information about the textile item 272, the data consuming service 2210 retrieves the digital identifier 2222 from the database 2207 and accesses a database 2200 to receive a corresponding uniform resource identifier URL In other embodiments the data consuming party, which may be a user or customer of the textile item, may retrieve the digital identifier directly through the decentral data base 2200, i.e., preferably based on the scanned physical identifier of the textile item 272 and an access to the decentral data base 2200.

[0082] The data consuming service 2210 sends the request to the data providing service 2208 via the data link 2212, whereupon the data providing service 2208 uses the identifier 2218 included in the request to retrieve, from a database 2202 managed by the data providing party, the requested data 2220 for which it has been determined that the data consuming party is authorized for access. This information, which may be stored in the database 2202 as part of a digital twin of the textile item 272, is then forwarded by the data providing service 2208 to the data consuming service 2210 via the data link 2216. The forwarded data may then be stored by the data consuming service 2210 in the data base 2207 associated with the data consuming party, as signified by arrow 2224.

[0083] While the digital twin may be stored in the database 2202, it may be preferred that the digital twin is additionally or alternatively stored in the database 2200, which may be a decentral database. The digital twin may be stored in the possibly decentral database 2200 such that it can be accessed by the data consuming service 2210 to retrieve the digital identifier of the textile item 272, for instance. Still, the information associated with the textile item 272 may partially or completely be stored in a local database such as the database 2202, accessible via the digital identifier.

[0084] Moreover, while the request sent from the data consuming service 2210 to the data providing service 2208 includes the digital identifier, it may also include authentication and / or authorization information. This authentication and / or authorization information may be used by the data consuming service to determine whether the request can be granted or to which extent.

[0085] Fig. 3 shows schematically an exemplarily embodiment of a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain, which may be regarded as corresponding to the sending of the request and the providing of the requested information as indicated by arrows 2212, 2216 in Fig. 2.

[0086] In this embodiment, in a first step 110 of the method, a request to access at least a part of a digital twin for a recycled garment is received, the request including an identifier to identify the digital twin, wherein the digital twin includes data associated with waste material associated with the recycled garment.

[0087] The digital twin can be a Digital Product Passport (DPP), for instance. Moreover, the request may be transmitted via a central, federated network such as Catena-X, for instance, or a decentral network. The decentral version of the network may include a distributed ledger and a tokenization function. For instance, the digital twin may be stored or managed together with digital twins for other textile items such as recycled garments using the distributed ledger, and the tokenization function may refer to a rule for issuing digital representations (tokens) of predefined acts carried out by parties interacting via the network, such as a return of waste material with predefined characteristics by a textile brand owner to a collection or recycling site, for instance. More generally, any data “included in or accessible via” a digital twin may in fact be “included in or accessible via” the digital as a digital representation of underlying data in terms a token. Hence, whenever reference is made herein to data or information associated with a digital twin or a textile item, also a tokenized version of the data may be used.

[0088] By converting data associated with textile items such as textile waste item to units of tokens), such data can be virtually balanced on a distributed ledger and can be efficiently assigned via attribution rules to textile items in the value chain. Specifically since in textile value chains typically more than one textile item is produced from more than one input material and / or items via interconnected, connected and non-connected production lines, the use of token(s) in combination with attribution rules is beneficial for allowing to reliably assign textile item data in line with the physical setup of the value chain and to tailor the units of token(s) (e.g. digital assets) associated with a textile item to the needs of value chain participants. The virtual balancing using token(s) and associated meta data structure further allows to decouple the complexity in material flow of a textile value chain while still allowing to tailor environmental impact to each textile item.

[0089] A token may be a representation of environmental attribute(s) or other data of a physical asset such as a textile item, and can be exchanged among participants of a distributed ledger network and recorded in the distributed ledger. The token may be associated with units. Said units may specify a quantitative measure of the data the token is linked to. Said units may specify a quantitative measure of the data the token is linked to. The token may specify a qualitative measure of the data the token is linked to. The token may be a fungible token (e.g. an asset that is not unique and mutually interchangeable). The token may be a nun-fungible token (e.g. an asset that is unique). This may allow to uniquely link a token and hence the data the token is associated with to a particular order of a produced textile item. In order for a data consumer to access the data a token represents, the units with which the token is associated may need to be unlocked by the data consumer. For this purpose, for instance, a secret as well as a vault address to unlock the units of tokens may be provided to the data consumer via a digital twin of the respective textile item.

[0090] The request is issued by a data consumer and can be received by, for instance, a data provider. The data consumer and the data provider may correspond to respective nodes of the network. However, this correspondence, i.e., the assignment of the terms “data consumer” and “data provider” to the respective nodes, will typically not be fixed, but may only relate to the specific request at hand. For another instance of the illustrated method, the roles of the data consuming node and the data providing node may be reversed, for example. On the other hand, a particularly relevant case would be that the data consumer is a garment producer and the data provider is a recycling entity, i.e., a recycler.

[0091] Although in the illustrated embodiment a digital twin for a recycled garment is considered, in other embodiments digital twins for other textile items may be used. The respective digital twin may also be defined as a digital twin for a material associated with the garment. A material associated with a garment is understood herein as also being a textile item.

[0092] The combination of a recycled garment (or other textile item, such as a material associated with the garment) and a digital twin can greatly enhance circularity in the textile value chain, wherein “the” textile value chain shall collectively refer to all existing production and trade relations regarding textile such as garments, in order to emphasize the scale of the challenge at hand. The textile value chains is extremely fragmented with a wide variety of large and small participants with very different internal systems and processes, regarding both hardware and software. In addition, the value chain is global with, for example, material manufacturers (e.g., of PA6) in Europe, garment produces in Asia, and worldwide sales channels. The combination of a digital twin with a recycled garment (or other textile item, such as a material associated with the garment) enables the varied participants in the lengthy and complex textile value chain to track, trace, monitor, sort, certify, and prove the circularity of textile products and materials.

[0093] In an example, a material producer such as a producer of a pre-product for garment production might prove that the material or pre-product it provides is recycled to a defined percentage and / or that the material or pre-product it provides stems from a particular source. For instance, a garment producer being supplied by the material producer may desire (optionally only under one or more of several possible brands) to only produce garments using material that has been recycled from garment waste stemming exclusively from the same garment producer (particularly garment waste of the respective one or more of the several possible brands). Such garments may be referred to as fully circular garment products. Hence, for instance, a state may be achieved in which all garments of a given brand consist to 100 percent of material recycled from garments of the same brand. In this example, a request like in step 110 may be issued by the garment producer to the material producer at least from time to time in order to check the pre-product quality and hence maintain the nature of the brand.

[0094] One type of pre-product in garment production can be granules produced from textile waste in a granulation process. Via digital twins, also information about when garment waste or other textile waste reaches a granulation process can be tracked. Such information can be recorded upon entry of the waste into granulation, for instance. Tracking of such temporal information enables participants of the textile value chain to know how much material went into the granulation process and how much material came out of the granulation process.

[0095] Digital twins for recycled garments or other textile items in a circular textile value chain can also be used to provide regulators with evidence of regulatory compliance, i.e., in particular, with evidence of compliance with regulations relating to sustainability. For instance, participants can provide data to certification bodies using a digital twin, receive the certification, and then provide evidence of being certified to other participants. In a very concrete embodiment, yarn producers can be certified that they sell sustainable yarn.

[0096] Certification can also play a role among members of the textile value chain, such as in order to make sure recycled material is only supplied as a pre-product to responsible producers. For instance, brand owners may be provided with recycled material only to an amount to which they have been also been provided with collected waste from that brand owner. In other words, brand owners may give material to a material manufacturer who, in turn, can certify that the material has been received and then give back recycled material, such as in a corresponding amount.

[0097] Different brands can be created, developed and / or maintained for recycled material that is recycled from a) post-consumer waste and b) post-industrial waste.

[0098] According to the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3, irrespective of the data included in the digital twin and its use, the request to receive access to at least a part of it is, after being received in step 1 10, subject to a determination of whether to provide the data consumer with access to the requested part of the digital twin. This may be regarded as a validation step 115, and may particularly include carrying out an authentication and / or authorization step. In this step, an authenticity and / or authorization of the request itself and / or the requesting data consumer is assessed. In particular, it may be assessed, using known authentication and / or authorization schemes, whether the request indeed stems from a registered data consumer, or even specifically whether it stems from the data consumer it pretends to be issued by, and / or whether the data consumer is authorized to access the requested part of the digital twin.

[0099] If in step 115 it is determined that the request is valid, in step 125 the request is granted. Otherwise, i.e., if step 115 has a negative result, the request is denied in a step 130. Notably, the request can also be partially granted and partially denied. Hence, generally, at least a portion of the requested information from the digital twin of the recycled garment may be provided to the requestor while providing at least one other portion of the requested information from the digital twin of the recycled garment may be denied in a combined step 125, 130.

[0100] As far as the request is granted, at least a portion (i.e., part) of the requested information from the digital twin of the recycled garment (or other textile item, such as a material associated with the garment) is provided to the requestor, i.e., to the data consumer.

[0101] Moreover, the provided information can include a fractional share of PA6 in the recycled garment. Additionally or alternatively, the provided information can be tokenized. Tokeni- zation can increase data safety. This, in turn, can lead to members of a textile value chain being more willingly to participate in the sharing of data, since a considerable amount of the relevant data might be sensitive data.

[0102] Hence, a response to the request can include or consist of returning a token resulting from a tokenization of the requested information for which the request has been granted. Instead of the token itself, access to the token may be provided as a response, such as by providing access data for retrieving the token from a data base. The data consumer may then access the information based on the token.

[0103] Additionally or alternatively to information indicative of a PA6 amount in the recycled garment, the provided information can be indicative of where the textile waste that entered a recycling process leading to the recycled garment. The “where”, i.e., the origin of the waste, can refer to a corporate origin, a geographical or regional origin, or a particular production plant involved in the production of garments from which the textile waste stems. Hence, the response to the request can be understood as providing evidence of origin. Likewise, the information can be indicative of how much waste entered the recycling process leading to the recycled garment. This can be used as an indicator for the degree of sustainability of the garment.

[0104] The requestor can use the received, i.e., the granted, information to prove regulatory compliance. This might be the case in a Catena-X-like system, for instance. Similarly, the information can be used by the requestor to provide proof of environmental attributes of the respective garment or the requestor in general, a possible environmental attribute being, for instance, the Product Carbon Footprint. A proof can also refer to a predefined amount of recycled material in a garment. Also certificates for compliance with a standard and / or of the quality of a material of the garment may be requested based on the received information. For instance, a certificate may be issued for a garment or a garment producer if the garment or all garments produced by the producer have a constant PA6 content throughout one or more recycling cycles. In fact, also a recycling entity, i.e., a recycler, may be certified if the recycler can provide evidence that he or a particular recycling process or recycling site run by him converts waste material with a predefined PA6 content into recycled material (such as granule, for instance) with the same or a further predefined PA6 content. In other words, a certificate may particularly be issued if recycled material generated from PA6 is still PA6 (and wasn't converted to something else).

[0105] A response from a recycler to a requesting garment producer who is also responsible for his customers returning his garments after their lifetime and for collecting the returned garments and providing the same to the recycler may also function as a circularity feedback from the recycler to the garment producer, who may in this case also be regarded as a waste provider. The circularity feedback may be indicative of whether the garment producer achieved, in a predefined time interval or for a particular set of textile waste units, a high circularity or whether the recycler found a lot of non-recyclable material in the waste. Such a feedback can help the garment producer to increase the efficiency of his return and / or collection system and hence to increase circularity.

[0106] In a particular example, a recycler recycling garments of different brands, produced at different locations and used partially by consumers and partially by the industry, may respond to corresponding requests from the respective garment producers by providing certificates about a degree of circularity achieved by the garment producer. The degree of circularity may be determined specifically for each brand, production location and manner of use (consumer / industry). Assuming a reasonably constant recycling efficiency of the recycling process run by the recycler himself, the degree of circularity will largely depend on the return and collection system, wherein it may be an aim of the garment producer to achieve a high degree of circularity. Due to the active role played by the recycler in this example, i.e., the role of providing an incentive to the textile industry to act sustainably, and due to the circularity of the textile value chain, also the recycler may have an interest that the garment producers achieve a high degree of circularity. The collective goal of the garment producers and the recycler may be to achieve a degree of circularity of 100 percent.

[0107] To give another example, a response from a textile waste collecting entity, i.e., a collector, to a requesting logistics provider can function as a feedback about where the waste is and how to organize the collection of waste, which can help to optimize logistics.

[0108] Fig. 4 shows schematically and exemplary an embodiment of the method illustrated by Fig. 3, but from the perspective of the data consumer. From this perspective, the method includes a step 110’ of sending a request to access at least a part of a digital twin for a recycled garment, the request including an identifier to identify the digital twin, wherein the digital twin includes data associated with waste material associated with the recycled garment. In a second step 125’, which follows if or to the extent that the request sent in step 110’ is granted, at least a portion of the requested information from the digital twin of the recycled garment is received. Otherwise, or to the missing extent, in a step 130’, a denial of the request to at least a portion of the requested information from the digital twin of the recycled garment is received.

[0109] Fig. 5 shows schematically and exemplarily an embodiment of a method of using a digital twin. Again the perspective of the data consumer is taken in Fig. 5. In a first step 125” of the method, which could be regarded as corresponding to step 125’ of the above method shown in Fig. 4 and hence might also be following step 110’, access to at least a part of a digital twin for a textile waste item is received, the digital twin including data associated with a material of and / or recycling instructions for the textile waste item. In a further step 126, recycling instructions for the textile waste item are generated by accessing the digital twin. Furthermore, the recycling instructions for recycling the textile waste item are carried out in step 127. The method may be carried out by a recycling entity such as a waste collector and / or sorter, as shown as network participant 101.5 in Fig. 1 , or by a recycling system operator as shown as network participant 101 .6 in Fig. 1 , wherein the recycling instructions may then refer, for instance, to collecting and / or sorting instructions or, respectively, to instructions for a recycling process run by the recycling system operator, such as granulation. In an exemplary embodiment, the recycling instructions may refer to timing and / or sorting instructions for a granulation process, and may be determined based on a PA6 content of a plurality of textile waste items entering the granulation process. The PA6 content data may be retrieved by scanning physical identifiers on the textile waste items, which have previously been added to them at a waste collection site, and by using the digital twins of the textile waste items, which are accessible based on the scanned physical identifiers. If it is determined that an average PA6 content in a plurality of textile waste items that would be converted into a same unit of granules is below a predetermined threshold, then as many textile waste items from the plurality of textile waste items with a PA6 content below the average or predetermined threshold may be sorted out before being molten as needed for increasing the average PA6 content to above the predetermined threshold. The items that have been sorted out may then instead be used for forming granules together with a plurality of subsequent textile waste items for which an average PA6 content has been determined that is sufficiently high to allow for an addition of the textile waste items previously sorted out and still stay above the predetermined threshold. In this way, a quality of recycled PA6 and also an efficiency of the recycling process may be maintained without additional waste disposal.

[0110] In another exemplary embodiment, the recycling instructions may refer to timing and / or sorting instructions for a PA6 production process based on granules received from a granulation site in the form of packaged units. On the packaged units, which may also be referred to as granules filled into receptacles, respective physical identifiers may have been attached at the granulation site, the physical identifiers allowing to access respective digital twins of the packaged units that include or allow access to data indicative of a respective average PA6 content of the granules in the respective packaging. This data may be generated upon generating the respective digital twin of the packaged unit at the granulation site based on the digital twins of the textile waste items that led to the granule in the respective packaging. If, for a plurality of packaged units of granules that are to be used together for producing PA6, it is determined that the average PA6 content of the granules in the plurality of packaged units is below a predetermined threshold, then as many packaged units with a PA6 content below the average or predetermined threshold may be sorted out before being used further as needed for increasing the average PA6 content to above the predetermined threshold. The units that have been sorted out may then instead be used together with a plurality of subsequent packaged units of granules for which an average PA6 content has been determined that is sufficiently high to allow for an addition of the units previously sorted out and still stay above the predetermined threshold. Also in this way a quality of recycled PA6 and also an efficiency of the recycling process may be maintained without additional waste disposal. The above examples of recycling instructions referring to timing and / or sorting instructions may similarly or identically apply if the granules are not PA6 granules but polyester granules. Moreover, the recycling instructions may refer to timing and / or sorting instructions for regaining cotton fibres from textile waste containing cotton and / or for producing cotton yarn based thereon. In the above, the PA6 content could then be replaced by, for instance, a cotton content or a cotton fiber quality, and the granulation process could be replaced by a shredding and / or a mechanical or chemical decomposition of the textiles into cotton fibers. For instance, depending on a cotton fiber quality of textile waste, the textile waste may be mixed with virgin cotton before being used for yarn production. For doing so, the textile waste may be sorted before the mixing, and / or the mixing may be carried based on timing information allowing to infer, at the time of mixing, a cotton content or cotton fibre quality of the cotton material being mixed from a respective assessment carried out earlier in the process, such as at the time of collecting or sorting. Additionally or alternatively, this information may be inferred at the time of using a respective yarn, such as by knitting or weaving for garment production. Depending, for instance, on the fiber quality of the yarn inferred based on the digital twin, the yarn may be mixed with other cotton or non-cotton yarns.

[0111] Fig. 6 illustrates an example of an apparatus for recycling material residue 104 from e.g. textile(s), i.e. textile waste such as worn-out garments, but possibly also from engineering plastics or packaging material. Textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material are used by way of examples for material containing one or more synthetic polymer(s) that are to be recycled to textile items such as garments or pre-products thereof.

[0112] The apparatus may include a provider interface 204 configured to provide a physical material identifier and material data associated with the material e.g. with the garment waste or its thermal insulation or packaging material. The provider interface 204, e.g. a material provider interface, may be configured to access a digital twin in the form of a material passport associated with the material e.g. with the garment waste or packaging material. The material passport may be stored in a computing system including a central or decentral network storage 200 such as the database 2200 indicated in Fig. 2. The material passport may provide access to the material data of the material, such as the garment or the thermal insulation or packaging material as produced, via the physical material identifier of the material, such as garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material as produced. For example, the identifier element connected to the material such as the textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material after production may be read out to provide the physical material identifier. The physical material identifier of the material, such as the garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material, may be provided by an ID reader 202. The physical material identifier associated with the material, such as the thermal insulation or packaging material, may have been provided to a computing system 200 accessing a central or decentral data base storing the material passport. The data base may store the physical material identifier in connection with material data provided by the producer of the material, such as the garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material, on production of the material, such as the garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material.

[0113] The data base may be a central, decentral or distributed data base. Based on the physical material identifier the material data may be accessed or retrieved. Such material data may be output e.g. on a display to a user.

[0114] Material data may include the trade name of the material, such as the garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material, the chemical composition of the material, such as the garment material or the thermal insulation or packaging material, and / or manufacturing data of the material, such as manufacturer, manufacturing method or educts used for manufacturing.

[0115] The provider interface 204, e.g. a recycling unit provider interface, may be configured to provide a recycling unit identifier associated with a recycling unit for collecting the material residue. The recycling unit may refer, for instance, to a package of textile waste. For example, an identifier element connected to the recycling unit for collecting the material residue may be read out. The recycling unit identifier associated with the recycling unit may be provided. The recycling unit identifier associated with the recycling unit may be provided to the computing system including the central or decentral network 200 for linking it with the physical material identifier(s) associated with material residue filled into the recycling unit, such as worn-out garments or other textile waste material.

[0116] To identify the material residue collected inside the recycling unit on collection, the recycling unit identifier and the physical material identifier of the material, such as the textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material, from which the material residue is formed may be provided. The recycling unit identifier may be stored in connection with or linked to the physical material identifier of the material, such as the textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material. The recycling unit(s) may be provided together with the material for collecting material residues or scraps. The recycling unit identifier may be linked to the material identifier associated with the material the recycling unit is provided with, such as on providing the material. This way collection recycling units may be provided together with the materials to collect material scrap and to simplify recycling. Based on such connection or link the material data of the material residue, such as the garment waste or the insulation or packaging material residue may be accessed or retrieved. The material data may be provided via the material passport of the material, such as the textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material, as provided on production of the material, such as the textile(s), engineering plastics or packaging material. This way the material, such as the textile or packaging material, can be reliably tracked and made transparent to simplify the recycling process.

[0117] The apparatus may include an input interface 206 configured to receive a request for recycling of the material residue e.g. by a user of the material or a recycler of the material residue. The input interface may be configured to receive a request for recycling of material, such as textile or packaging material. The request may include recycling data associated with the material residue, such as textile or packaging material residue. The recycling data may include a trigger signal to initiate the recycling process.

[0118] The apparatus may include a recycling instruction generator 208 configured to generate recycling instruction(s) based on the recycling unit identifier and the material identifier. The material identifier and the recycling unit identifier may be provided through an ID reader 202 prior or on collection of material residue in the recycling unit. For example, the material identifier and the recycling unit identifier may be provided by reading a QR-code via a mobile phone or other devices. The material identifier and the recycling unit identifier may be linked on collection e.g. by generating a virtual link between the material identifier and the recycling unit identifier and / or storing such link in the central or decentral network storage. Since the material residue may contain multiple materials, more than one physical material identifier may be provided. Multiple physical material identifier(s) may be linked to one recycling unit identifier. By linking the recycling unit identifier with the physical material identifiers) associated with the material residue collected inside the recycling unit, the content of the recycling unit can be made digitally accessible and transparent.

[0119] Based on the respective material data it may be determined, if the content of the recycling unit comprises a mix of material types or one type of material. If a mix of material types are collected per recycling unit, recycling instructions may be generated that include at least one sorting step.

[0120] The recycling instructions may connect the recycling units with multiple material types to a sorting process followed by the recycling process, such as mechanical and / or chemical recycling. If one type of material is present, recycling instructions may be generated that relate to the recycling process, such as mechanical and / or chemical recycling. The recycling instructions may connect the recycling units with one material type directly to the recycling process, such as mechanical and / or chemical recycling. In other words, the recycling instructions may not include a sorting step preceding the recycling process, such as mechanical and / or chemical recycling.

[0121] The recycling instruction generator 208 may be configured to provide e.g. the user with different options for recycling such as recycling via dedicated recycling units associated with recycling unit identifier(s) or recycling via recycling units not associated with recycling unit identifier(s).

[0122] In case of recycling unit(s) associated with recycling unit identifier(s), the recycling instruction generator or the input interface may be configured to prompt a user to provide the recycling unit identifier.

[0123] The input interface may be configured to receive a request for providing the recycling unit identifier. The recycling unit identifier may be provided via the provider interface 204 and / or the ID reader 202.

[0124] The recycling unit identifier may be stored in connection with or linked to the physical material identifier of the material, such as textile or packaging material.

[0125] In case of recycling unit(s) not associated with recycling unit identifiers), the recycling instruction generator 208 or the input interface 206 may be configured to prompt a user to generate the recycling unit identifier. A recycling unit identifier generator 207 may be configured to generate and provide the recycling unit identifier. The recycling unit identifier generator 207 may be configured to output the identifier element for connection or physical attachment to the recycling unit. The recycling unit identifier may be stored in connection with or linked to the physical material identifier of the material, such as thermal insulation or packaging material.

[0126] The recycling instruction(s) may relate to the physical collection, the physical sorting and / or the physical recycling of the material residue. For example, the recycling instructions may correlate the location of the material residue, such as textile or packaging material residue, with locations of other textile or packaging material residue. From such locations a collection route may be determined, and collection instructions for collecting the material residue may be determined. Further for example, the recycling instructions may correlate the chem- ical composition of the material, such as textile or packaging material residue, with chemical compositions of other material, such as textile or packaging material residue. This way a simplified sorting through the identifiers associated with the recycling units is possible and more complex sorting can be avoided. Based on the chemical composition and / or the locations the collection instruction(s) may be determined. Using the chemical composition, the recycling unit collection may be operated according to chemical composition, such that material residue with chemical composition that can be recycled together or fed into a recycling plant together may be collected. This allows for sorting of recycling units on collection or sorted collection and avoids more complex sorting prior to recycling. In addition, based on the chemical composition and respective sorting higher quality recyclate can be achieved on recycling in recycling plants. The connection of recycling data associated with the material residue, such as textile or packaging material residue, and the material data associated with the produced material, such as textile or packaging material allows for more efficient recycling and increases recyclate quality, since waste stream can be managed in a controlled manner. This simplifies the production of new materials, since more complex cleaning or separation of the recyclate stream can be avoided.

[0127] The provider interface 204, e.g. the recycling unit provider interface or any other suitable interface, may be configured to provide a quantity of material residue, such as textile or packaging material residue, e.g. mass, weight or volume, a type of material residue, a number of recycling units, a location of material residue, a user of the material residue, and / or a manufacturer of the material residue. The data may be provided by a user, the ID reader, the computing system including a central or decentral network storage and / or through the provider interface accessing the material passport of the material.

[0128] The apparatus may include an output interface 210 configured to provide the generated recycling instructions for recycling the material residue, such as textile material residue.

[0129] The recycling instructions may be provided to a central or decentral network, whereupon the recycling instructions may be stored in a central or decentral storage 212. The recycling instructions may be provided for access or retrieval by a collector for collecting the material residue, a recycler for recycling the material residue and / or a manufacturer for manufacturing new materials from the material residue.

[0130] Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show schematically high-level examples of respective data models for a digital twin 10, 10’ of textile items of two different types. The digital twin 10 shown in Fig. 7 is a digital twin of a recycled textile product, which may particularly be a recycled garment or a garment pre-product such as a fabric, while the digital twin 10’ shown in Fig. 8 is a digital twin of material associated with the textile item, such as waste material used in a recycling process leading to the textile item

[0131] Apart from its digital identifier, the digital twin 10 includes data fields that might be segmented into general data fields and recycling data fields. The general data fields include a material composition field, which may describe the specific materials used in the textile, including the primary fiber(s) such as PA6, as well as any secondary fibers or additives. Furthermore, manufacturing details may be contained in a general data field that might capture information about the manufacturing process of the textile, including the specific techniques, machinery, and parameters involved in its production. Also, physical properties may be captured in a field that might include data related to the physical characteristics of the textile, such as weight, thickness, tensile strength, color, and any other relevant properties. Likewise, a performance specifications field may provide information about the performance attributes of the textile, such as its breathability, moisture-wi eking capabilities, UV resistance, or other functional properties. Supply chain information may be captured in a field that might track and document the various stages of the textile's supply chain, including sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing locations, distribution channels, and other relevant information for traceability. Furthermore, the general data fields may include a field for compliance and certifications. This field might indicate whether the textile or its components comply with specific industry standards, regulations, or certifications related to quality, safety, or sustainability. Moreover, a care and maintenance instructions fields might provide guidance on how to care for and maintain the textile, including recommended washing instructions, ironing temperatures, and other care-related details. Besides, end-of-life instructions may be included via a field that could offer guidance on the proper disposal or recycling of the textile once it reaches the end of its usable life, promoting responsible and sustainable end-of-life practices.

[0132] Among the recycling data fields, a field associated with an amount of recycled content may be provided for indicating the percentage or quantity of recycled material present in the textile. This can help to track and communicate the level of sustainability achieved through recycling. Further among the recycling data fields, a date of recycling field may capture the date when the textile was recycled or when the recycled content was incorporated into the textile. It may provide information about the timeline and history of the recycling process. Moreover, a recycling method field might describe the specific method or process used to recycle the textile. It could include details such as mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, or other innovative recycling technologies. Also, a recycling certification field may be provided that could indicate whether the recycling process or the textile itself has received any certifications or compliance with specific recycling standards. This can help to validate the sustainability claims associated with the recycled textile. Additionally, a recycling data field associated with a recycling source may be provided, wherein this field might identify the source or origin of the recycled materials used in the textile. It could specify whether the material was sourced from post-consumer waste, industrial waste, or other specific sources. A field associated with recycler information may be provided that includes details about the recycling facility or organization responsible for the recycling process. It may include their name, location, certifications, or other relevant information. What is more, the environmental impact of the textile item may be captured in a further field in terms of data related to the environmental impact of the recycling process, such as energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, or water usage. It helps assess the overall sustainability performance of the recycling process. Besides, a field associated with a chain of custody may be included in the recycling data fields, wherein this field may track the movement and handling of the recycled textile throughout the supply chain. It can provide transparency and ensure the integrity of the recycled content.

[0133] The digital twin 10’, i.e. the digital twin for a material such as waste material like scrap or material residue used for recycling, may include, apart from its digital identifier, a data field indicating a material type, which might specify the type of material that the digital twin represents (e.g. cotton, polyester, nylon, etc.), a data field indicating a source of the material, which may indicate where the scrap material or residue was generated (e.g. from a textile manufacturing process, from a product that was discarded, etc.), and / or a quantity indicating field that may specify the amount of scrap material or residue that is being represented by the digital twin (e.g. in pounds, kilograms, etc.). Also, a data field indicative of characteristics of the material may be included in the digital twin 10’, which might describe any unique properties or characteristics of the material that may affect its recyclability (e.g. color, texture, chemical composition, etc.). Furthermore, a recycling potential may be captured in a field that, for instance, indicates the potential for the material to be recycled or repurposed (e.g. high, medium, low). Recycling options and / or instructions can be captured using a field that might list possible methods for recycling or repurposing the material (e.g. mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, upcycling, etc.). Moreover, a field indicating an environmental impact may be provided with the digital twin 10’, wherein this field could describe the environmental impact of the material if it is not recycled (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, landfill waste, water pollution, etc.).

[0134] The data model for the digital twin 10 may be extended by specifications regarding how the data included in the digital twin 10 are to be displayed. For instance, the data model may support a dashboard via which a data consumer can receive a visual representation of the data included in the digital twin 10. The dashboard may show, for instance, where the waste was collected, where it was sorted, etc. Moreover, the dashboard may show a Product Carbon Footprint.

[0135] Fig. 9 illustrates what could be referred to as an “individual” configuration for different digital twins of a circular textile value chain. For multiple stages in the value chain individual digital twins may be generated, among them a digital twin 10 associated with a recycled textile item such as a recycled garment, and a digital twin 10’ associated with waste material from which the recycled garment has been produced, i.e., recycled. Each digital twin may include a respective digital, particularly decentral, identifier and data relating to a respective textile item at a respective stage of the value chain. The different digital twins may be concatenated through hash values based on different data sets, specifically the different data included in the respective digital twins. As shown in Fig. 9, for instance, hash 1 may be based on data of a digital twin associated with textile waste (“textile waste digital twin”), hash 2 may be based on data of the digital twin associated with a package of textile waste (“textile waste package digital twin”) and hash 3 may be based on data of the textile waste digital twin in combination with, particularly concatenated with, data of the textile waste package digital twin. The hashes may be used to generate a hash chain allowing to determine the waste materials bundled into a waste material package and / or used to produce a recycled granule, a recycled fabric and / or a recycled garment. Further combination and particularly concatenation may be done for other combinations of digital twins up to hash n, which combines, particularly concatenates, digital twins up to the digital twin associated with the recycled garment (“recycled garment digital twin”). The sequence of hashes from hash 1 to hash n can be viewed as a “mirror” of the value chain from the textile waste material to the recycled garment, since it reflects the relationships between the respective digital twins. Concatenation via hashes is only one example concatenation via which a digital twin can be linked to digital twins of textile items preceding or following in the value chain. Moreover, instead of an “individual” configuration as shown in Fig. 9, other configurations leading to other combinations of the data being hashed and thus to other hash chains.

[0136] Fig. 10 shows the digital twins of Fig. 9 including concatenation information indicating the concatenation of the digital twins using hash values as described with reference to Fig. 9. That is to say, in this case the digital twins comprise concatenation information in the form of respective hash values as explained with reference to Fig. 9.

[0137] Another way of linking digital twins of textile items from different stages in a value chain is provided by including in the digital twins data that is indicative of times at which the respective associated textile item arrived at and / or left a production and / or processing site and / or at which it entered a production or recycling process. More generally, this may be referred to as tracking information.

[0138] For instance, in a process of generating granules to be used in textile production from textile waste items, the textile waste items may be pre-processed and subsequently molten, wherein the melt is then processed into granules. The granules may then be filled into receptacles to form respective units of granules for a further transport. By allowing to access, via a physical identifier and hence a digital identifier of such a unit of granules, the digital twins of the textile waste items from which the granules constituting the unit of granules (i.e. , the granules inside the respective receptacle) have been generated, data like a material composition of the unit of granules can be inferred from the accessed digital twins, i.e., the digital twins of what could be regarded as the pre-products of the product being the unit of granules, wherein this data may hence implicitly or explicitly be included in the digital twin of the unit of granules. The access can be provided by linking the digital identifier of the unit of granules to digital identifiers of the textile waste items from which the granules constituting the unit of granules have been generated. The textile waste items may have been provided with respective physical identifiers along with generating respective digital twins at a textile waste collection site. The link between the digital identifier of the unit of granules to the digital identifiers of the textile waste items from which the granules constituting the unit of granules have been generated can be established based on a recorded time when each of the textile waste item entered the granulation process and a time when the unit of granules was generated, i.e., for instance, the time when the receptacle was filled with generated granules. Furthermore, a known time interval between textile waste items entering the recycling process and granules made from these textile waste items leaving the recycling process may be used.

[0139] In case the granulation process is organized such that the granules are stored intermediately in intermediate storage containers such as silos, wherein granules from the intermediate storage containers are subsequently filled into transport receptacles for transporting the granules further to a further recycling site such as a plant where PA6-containing granules are used for PA6 production, wherein a volume of the intermediate storage containers is larger, particularly a multiple of, the transport receptacles, then exact knowledge about which waste units were converted into the granules of which transport receptacle might not be accessible. However, knowledge about the textile waste units which were converted into a plurality of transport receptacles, i.e., knowing into which plurality of transport receptacles any given plurality of textile waste items was distributed into in the form of corresponding granules, which would then still be accessible, can generally be sufficient. In the above, the units of granules could also be units of shredded textiles, the shredded textiles referring to textile fibers and / or larger textile parts, wherein the textiles can particularly also refer to cotton textiles and thus the units of granules could also be units of cotton fibers and / or larger cotton textile shreds. Information inferred from a digital twin of the unit of shredded textiles may then be used, for instance, in a further processing or treatment of the shredded textiles, such as a mixing with other textile material or a production of yarn.

[0140] Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims.

[0141] In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality.

[0142] A single unit or device may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

[0143] Steps like the receiving of a request, the determining if or which data to provide, authenticating a request, et cetera, performed by one or several units or devices can be performed by any other number of units or devices. These steps can be implemented as program code means of a computer program and / or as dedicated hardware.

[0144] A computer program may be stored / distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium, supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

[0145] Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope.

[0146] The invention relates to a method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain. The method includes a step of receiving, from a data consumer, a request for information from or accessible via at least a part of a digital twin for a textile item, the request including a digital identifier to identify the digital twin, wherein the digital twin includes or provides access to data associated with textile waste associated with the textile item. If it is determined, in a corresponding determination step, that the requested information or at least a part thereof is to be provided to the data consumer, a step of providing the same to the data consumer or of providing the data consumer, via the digital twin, with access to the same follows. The presented method allows for a sustainable textile value chain.

Claims

Claims:1 . A computer-implemented method for monitoring circularity in a circular textile value chain, the method including: receiving (1 10), from a data consumer, a request for information from or accessible via at least a part of a digital twin (10) for a textile item (272), the request including a digital identifier to identify the digital twin (10), wherein the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to data associated with textile waste associated with the textile item (272), determining (120) whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based at least in part on the digital identifier included in the request, and if it has been determined that the requested information or at least a part thereof is to be provided to the data consumer, providing (125) the same to the data consumer or providing the data consumer, via the digital twin (10), with access to the same.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the textile item (272) refers to a recycled garment and the textile waste associated with the textile item (272) refers to textile waste that entered a recycling process from which the recycled garment arose.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the textile item (272) refers to a unit of textile waste to be recycled and the data which the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to is associated with a material contained in the unit of textile waste.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the textile item (272) refers to a unit of textile material parts for textile production and the textile waste associated with the textile item (272) refers to textile waste that entered a partitioning process from which the unit of textile material parts arose.

5. The method as defined any of the preceding claims, wherein determining (120) whether to provide the requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based at least in part on the digital identifier included in the request includes an authentication of the request, wherein it is determined whether to providethe requested information or at least a part thereof to the data consumer based further at least in part on a result of the authentication.

6. The method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to data associated with a time at which the textile waste entered a granulation process.

7. The method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to data associated with an origin of the textile waste, the origin referring to at least one of: a corporate origin, a geographical or regional origin, a production plant involved in the production of a garment from which the textile waste stems.

8. The method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to data indicative of whether the textile waste is postindustrial waste or post-consumer waste.

9. The method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the digital identifier is associated with a physical identifier, the physical identifier being physically associated with at least one of the textile item (272), the textile waste and a packaging of any of the two.

10. The method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the digital twin (10) includes or provides access to data associated with an amount of a predefined textile material in the textile item (272).

11. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein the predefined textile material is a predetermined type of polyamide and the data associated with the amount of the predefined textile material being the at least one predetermined type of polyamide in the textile item (272) is based on an identification of at least one peak in a near-infrared spectrum of the textile item (272).

12. The method as defined in claim 11 , wherein the at least one predetermined type of polyamide refers to at least one of polyamide 6 and polyamide 6.6.

13. A data processing system comprising data processing means for carrying out the method as defined in any of claims 1 to 12.

14. A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer or in a network of computers or computing nodes, cause the computer or network to carry out the method as defined in any of claims 1 to 12.

15. A use of the method as defined in any of claims 1 to 12, of the system as defined in claim 13 and / or of the computer program as defined in claim 14 for recycling textile items.

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